a different kind of mask
by falling winter roses
Summary: masks were everywhere around her, but maybe some weren't so bad after all / a girl who wears a mask to her job at the Ministry every day and the happiness she finds under a the tangible mask at a masquerade party, and the love she finds with a man whose face she does not even know


**a/n: WEATHER SAYS IT'S GOING TO SNOW TOMORROW AND IT'S NEVER SNOWED WHERE I LIVE IN MY WHOLE ENTIRE LIFE**

 **I'M HOPING I'M HOPING I'M HOPING**

 **I LOVE THE COLD**

 **AND SNOW**

 **AND YEAH**

 **OKAY THEN IMA ACTUALLY START WRITING THIS NOW**

 **Also, I'm really liking this kind of 'nameless story' thing. I did it for the last thing I posted and I'm doing it for this one too.**

 **Written for the Ilvermorny forum New Beginnings Event.**

 **.**

 _ **Prompt:**_ **Write about a masquerade party in the Wizarding World.**

 **Word count: 740**

 **.**

She liked it, wearing the mask.

Being hidden under the glimmering silver thing obscuring her face, making her unrecognizable to those around her.

It was a wonderful feeling.

It was like she was free, free from the bounds of who she usually had to be. Free from the confines of her past and her future. Free from the watchful gazes that analyzed her every move, trying to find a weakness in her masking shield.

She smiled under the mask, and she let herself drop the mask she had worn for too long, let herself be free. She let her true self shine through, the girl who lusted and loved and smiled and laughed and joked.

She let her be her.

It was a wonderful feeling, letting go of her emotional mask and putting on a real one, one that would allow her to simply be a girl who wanted to live. A girl who loved and wanted to be loved, who smiled at the silliest things and read dramatic romance novels, a girl who wasn't the harsh woman she pretended to be.

This was the only way to survive, after all.

She smiled and laughed, tossed her head back.

She was free.

At this party, where masks could be found everywhere she looked, she could shed her own confines and let her true self shine through the barrier.

Yes, it did seem odd that she found solace in shedding her mask when surrounded by them and wearing that silvery, glimmering thing covering her face, but still, it was here, where masks were on the surface everywhere she looked, where she felt safest.

It was so much better to see real, tangible masks rather than the hidden emotional barriers and masks of the Ministry that surrounded her every day at work.

She smiled.

"I'm always expecting you here, Julian," she said, laughing at pecking him on the lips. They both knew not to use their real names, and somehow she felt that Julian was so much better than anyone she knew at work. She could talk to him, and even though she had no idea what he even looked like, or even his real name, she knew she could trust him.

It was an amazing feeling.

"Why hello again, Adeline," he laughed. "May I have this dance?" he asked, offering her his hand.

"Why of course, my handsome prince," she said, giggling at the little 'name' for him that she used.

They stepped onto the dance floor, where many other masked women and men were dancing to the slow jazz-like music.

They settled into a slow dance, and Adeline fell into the identity she had found here, at the magical ballroom in Diagon Alley, which held masquerade parties once a fortnight.

Suddenly the music changed to a fast waltz, and Adeline found herself laughing like crazy as Julian twirled and dipped her and they spun around and around, and she found herself happy, away from the stoic, serious identity she had to uphold at the Ministry.

An hour of dancing later, they collapsed into chairs at one of the small tables set to the side of the dance floor, breathless, muscles aching and feet terribly sore, but laughing and smiling and _happy._

"Shall I go get some drinks for us?" Julian asked.

"I'll come with you," she laughed. "Knowing you, you'll get firewhiskey and pretend it's butterbeer.

He laughed, and arm in arm, they headed over to the row of tables to the side of the ballroom that served as the setting of the masquerade party. The tables were laden with jugs and jugs of butterbeer, firewhiskey, pumpkin juice, lemonade, and water, and platters of cake and cookies.

The two got their pick: Adeline butterbeer and a slice of ice cream cake which had been enchanted to never melt, and Julian firewhiskey two sugar cookies covered in silver magically flavor-enhancing dust.

They sat at the table and just relaxed, talking like they did every party, talking about anything and everything and loving every second of it.

Later, when she was at home and she took off the silvery mask, she looked at herself in the mirror and smiled.

Maybe there were masks everywhere around her, and maybe she hated most of them with a fiery passion in her young and resilient heart, but some were amazing.

Some had brought life and love and happiness.

Maybe masks weren't so bad after all.


End file.
